This invention relates to a drop tester for use in freely and repeatedly dropping a specimen or an article, such as a compact disk, a memory disk, a video disk, or the like.
In general, an article of the type described comprises a plastic plate, a glass plate, or the like and a thin film or films deposited thereon. In such an article, durability must be tested against a mechanical shock. For this purpose, the article should be subjected to a dropping test. At any rate, the dropping test is helpful to assure quality of the article by testing the durability against the mechanical shock.
A conventional dropping test has been made by freely and repeatedly dropping an article from a predetermined height to an object, such as a floor, again and again to give a mechanical shock to the article and by counting repetitions of dropping the article until the article is broken or destructed.
More specifically, the article is first located on a support member, such as a desk, having the predetermined height and is manually dropped towards a floor by an operator from the desk or the like. Thereafter, the article should be manually picked up by the operator to be located on the desk again. Such a very simple operation should be repeated by the operator again and again until the article is broken. Practically, such an operation must be carried out hundreds or thousands of times. Therefore, the conventional dropping test is terribly time-consuming and laborious.